Chessboxing: Combining the board and the ring

After a three-minute boxing round in the ring, athletes duke it out at a chessboard, and then again put on their boxing gloves.

Source: Kirill Kallinikov / RIA Novosti, Reuters

It may not sound logical, but a new,
emerging sport is combining the power needed for boxing with the brains needed
to win in chess. Chessboxing started 10 years ago and is still perceived as
something exotic.

Dutch artist Ipe Rubingh developed the
idea to cross the two sports, which usually contradict each other.

Since 2003, chessbox amateurs have beat
each other over the head, then get their heads in order before concentrating on
the chessboard. Both events take place in the ring.

Despite its odd combination of skills,
the sport is catching on. Moscow recently hosted one of the odder sports
competitions: the Chessboxing World Championships.

Chessboxing consists of 11 rounds – six
in chess and five in boxing. Each series lasts three minutes.

To succeed in chessboxing, competitors
need to think fast. They must play in high speed - the sort of chess where
every second counts. If a fighter cannot make a move for a long time, a warning
from the referee spurs him on.

The frequently changing environment is
the most attractive side of chessboxing, some competitor say. After an intense
round of boxing, athletes have only one desire - to regain their breath. So
sometimes pieces on the board start moving on an unfamiliar path, and the
button on the clock is "jammed." The same referee helps the fighters
not to go astray.

For real grandmasters such episodes, of
course, are not encouraging, but they are clearly fun for others. The same men,
who in spite of everything can keep themselves orientated in space, are rightly
called the strongest and most intelligent people on the planet.

Ipe Rubingh at one time was the first
world champion in the sport he discovered. Again and again Rubingh said Russia
is of great interest for his project.

"Boxing and chess are in the
Russian blood,” Rubingh said. “You have a lot of champions in chess and in the
ring."

It’s not only that Russians like to
think and love to fight. Like any young sport, chessboxing needs sponsors. Now
athletes are paid modest fees - no more than $3,000 plus travel expenses.
Chessboxing competition in Moscow is transitioning to a professional level. And
since tickets for the event cost from 1,500 to 18,000 rubles, Rubingh said he
believes there is a good chance of findong an investor in the auditorium among
the fans.

The main Russian chessboxing player is
100-kilogram Siberian Nikolay Sazhin, who holds the heavyweight title. Outside
of the ring, Sazhin is a realtor.

The Knight from Krasnoyarsk, as he is
known, became interested in chess as a child, and started training with a
punching bag at the age of 14. When he knew about the appearance of a hybrid
sport, he applied to the International Federation of Chessboxing to consider
his candidacy as a rival to Frank Stoldt, 37, who was the strongest fighter at
the time. In the summer of 2008 Sazhin became the champion for the first time.

In the Moscow championship match,
Sazhin confronted Gianluca Sirchi, 41, whose appearance matched the image of a
person with close ties to the Italian Mafia. But in fact he is a doctor of
biological sciences, and quite a peaceful person.

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After the fight Sazhin said that from
the outset, he decided to concentrate on chess, since he did not feel ready to
finish his opponent in the boxing rounds. Spectators bite through his tactics
immediately.

"Give up!” the Italian shouted as
the Russian made the next move. Gianluca gave up only in the ninth round, and
then over the ring for the second time the words of the Russian poet Sergei
Yesenin were heard over the loudspeaker: "Again they drink here, fight and
cry." Sazhin was going to fight under this music.

After the match, people rushed to shake
hands with Sazhin, who once again proved that the power and the mind can
coexist in the same person. His girlfriend stood humbly on the sidelines. At
the moment it seemed that people who saw him in the ring people will not be
able to see boxing and chess separately again.

And the next time they see boxing
champion Vladimir Klichko on television, they might wonder how he would look at
the chessboard.